Just had some panels and batteries installed a couple of months ago. Octopus said they would require a "smart meter" for any feed in tariff including at a fixed rate with 2 readings an hour. This wasn't a requirement in the previous system from my previous house in 2012.
I didn't think much about this smart meter until I was shown the terms and conditions and alarm bells ringing straight away on this tariff:
https://octopus.energy/blog/terms-conditions-agile-go/However, these are beta products, they use our latest proprietary technology 
and smart meter infrastructure and are reliant on a number of 3rd party processes that may not always be reliable.
It is nice that they are honest that they may not always be reliable.
On the other hand when I hear that word "proprietary technology" I think bullshit is about to come up.
I phone them up and was told that the biggest complaint was that customers not getting a good reception and they have report the readings for the day which isn't a problem for me but if it was working two readings an hour seems to me excessive.
They also have a switch in them to turn off the electricity supply remotely if it has a signal as the last resort of not paying the bill. When I broke that down what it meant, if they feel I haven't paid the bill they don't need to get a court order to send someone out to disconnect the supply which they might think twice about. I am not happy about the level of power they have to instantly switch it off. I said to them that there is no signal in this area and I asked what about one that can support other modes of communication like work with the broadband too of cellular fails. The response was the "contractor they use are not proactive they are reactive" and will only come out when it fails. When asking about the meter not being accurate I was told it could all of a sudden, give the wrong reading and fail during firmware updates. A big nono.
I expect the meter or any measuring appliance to be accurate, uphold the readings to function long term without anything that could interfere and cause it to malfunction. I asked them what manufacturer and model of meter they were planning to install but was told they wouldn't know and on another call to them they use three types but refuse to tell me which one so I can get hold of the the datasheets and find out more facts and workings about them so I can instill some confidence. On my first call I was told I can revert at anytime to the previous meter if I was unhappy. My second call confirming this with more questions and was told they will not revert as " they are not fitting those anymore" despite them being available and if I don't want a "smart meter" just keep the existing but they won't offer me a feed in tariff. I was told there are no issues with their meters and to take no notice of the issues relating to smart meters complaints from other energy providers on that second call.
I gave it some thought over the weeks but the more i have been reading the more trust I loose.
A thread about many complaining over their bills doubling to Scottish Power after changing to a smart meter and not able to revert to their previous meter:
https://community.scottishpower.co.uk/t5/My-Energy/Smart-Meter-showing-incredibly-high-usage/td-p/1530Smart Meter showing incredibly high usage posted by LynnCam | 5 years ago
Hi - has anyone else had an issue with the Smart Meter registering incredible electricity usage? I had mine installed in August - my latest bill is the 1st with all electricity via the Smart Meter and it's showing that I am using 50kw per day, over 4000kw in the last quarter - that's more than I was using each year in the last 10 years that I have lived here! No new appliances or change of usage to justify this - only change is my Smart Meter. I have been on calls wiht Scottish Power since Monday and I'm getting nowhere - I have today been advised to call Actavo myself and ask them to come out which they will do but have stated it may be weeks before they can due to a backlog. I am incurring a bigger bill by the day - must be close to £1000 now for electricty for 3 months - please tell me others have had an issue with these meters not giving the correct readings as I am losing my mind over this
Page 2:posted by looneynana | 5 years ago
Hi i am having them same problem since smart meter installed, bills nearly double from previous. Had always been in credit and even got refund at end of year now i am in debit.Say it is accurate but i do not believe this and have asked to have it removed, lets see what happens.
Page 7:posted by fionastubbs | 4 years ago
Hi. I have just been sent a bill of £664.14pence and had a bill sent to me in October for £368.55pence. I have always paid quarterly and now being asked to pay £1,032.69 in just over a month. I have had solar installed and changed my light bulbs to LED so was expecting to have a drop in my bills. I have never had a bill for this amount ever quarterly let alone a month. Tried to speak as there must be something seriously wrong and got absolutely no where. Can anyone suggest what I can do about this situation?
Page 10:posted by lynsey | 4 years ago
Furthermore after turning the power off at the mains in the flat the main meter was still registering kWh used
Page 11:posted by fionastubbs | 4 years ago
Hi, I asked for my smart meter to be removed, to which they said they would, then I ring again to ask when I will be given a date and the girl in customer service told me that would have to come from a high authority and was surprised I had been told that I could. I gave the name of the lady who authorised it and was told she would ring me. Well still waiting and have spent the last month on the phone to them being passed from one department to another and listening to music, my bills have doubled even though I have solar, and they have said that they do look high but just keep asking me to pay and won’t look into the problem !!
page 19:posted by faysis | 4 years ago
Please can I encourage everyone who is having issues with their smart meters to pursue your complaint. I have had to pay £300 to get an engineer to do a full inspection of my solar panels and installation of my smart meter as Scottish Power have refused to come out even though it is obvious something is very wrong as I my meter only records what the solar panels produce. It has been proven that my meter was wired in incorrectly by the person that Scottish Power out to fit it and Scottish Power are still denying there is a problem. The ombudsmen ruled in my favour back in December but SP still have done nothing. I have been told I could take them to court and I will 100% win. The ombudsman told me they are seeing way more complaints than they would like where it turns out smart meters have been incorrectly installed, one of the reasons being CT clamps being put on the wrong way round. I have contacted OFGEM, BEIS and all the big newspaper as well as BBC Watchdog and I will not stop until SP are exposed for the dishonest organisation that they are.
Please note if you are thinking about getting a smart meter fitted DON'T. Because as it currently stands if your energy supplier pays a sub contractor to install a meter at your home and they fit it incorrectly you will be stuck with an incorrectly fitted meter as there is no obligation for your energy supplier to do a site visit at your property to check the installation if you suspect it is wrong. I have written to OFGEM about this and I am demanding that the process is changed as this is wrong. Please anyone who is having problems keep fighting your case. I have had 6 months of being told I'm wrong about my meter being wired in wrong but I wasn't. If you have got solar panels look at your smart meter at night time and check to see if the meter moved when you are using electric, if it doesn't then you have the same problem as me.
Page 24:posted by Eddie1w | 3 years ago
Hi, I pulled together a spreadsheet detailing all my readings from 2015 which showed a massive increase from when the smart meter was installed, they couldn’t argue the case after that. Hopefully more people will not just accept their statement “ well maybe your old meter wasn’t working properly “.
Page 27:posted by Phil101 | 3 years ago
All I can advise is go on Twitter, Facebook, any social media you can and don’t give up, they admitted my meter readings were wrong in the end and reimbursed what I was owed, even when I moved to EON they said that they could tell that the meter readings were wrong that was sent to them by Scottish power, they were told incorrectly that I had a single rate tariff when I’ve actually got day and night readings off the smart meter, Scottish power = hopeless
https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1630037/energy-crisis-outrage-smart-meters-overcharging-advice-updateEnergy crisis outrage as Britons complain that smart meters are overcharging them
BRITONS have expressed their fury after receiving energy bills that tripled after they installed the smart meter in their homes.
By ANTONY ASHKENAZ 12:43, Thu, Jun 23, 2022 | UPDATED: 13:58, Thu, Jun 23, 2022
Households in the UK are currently reeling from the worst impacts of the global fossil fuel energy crisis that has sent energy bills skyrocketing. As a result, many have installed a smart meter in their home in the hopes that they would pay either the same or less in energy bills. However, some Britons now claim that their smart meter is showing an increase in energy bills.
...
Richard Evans tweeted: “Hi, my smart meter for electricity seems to have gone mad! How can the cost be £4.13 - based on flexible tariff plus standing charge, I reckon cost should be around £1.13.”
Meanwhile, customers of British Gas have been flooding online forums with complaints about smart meters that date back to February, according to a NorthWales Live report. Sharon Backhouse said: "How the hell can BG charge me £13 in 45 minutes when I have no heating on?" Amy Evans warned: "Keep a close eye on your accounts.
"After querying what the cost says on my smart meter I was then told this was correct. £80 electricity in 4 days!
"Again queried this suddenly it went down and after further query went down again. Something fishy going on!" It is unclear whether the price increases that the customers are seeing on their smart meters are a result of Ofgem’s price cap increase in April, when bills rose by 54 percent to £1,971 a year. Meanwhile, Ofgem announced recently that the price cap for household energy bills is set to rise to around £2,800 by October, with some experts putting the figure at £3,000.
...
As a result of the April increase to £1,971 a year, there are 6.5 million people in fuel poverty.
Citizens Advice, a charity, noted that while faults in energy meters are usually rare, there could be a problem with your meter if “you're paying more than usual” or if “your prepayment meter is showing an error message”
They added: “Your supplier is responsible for making sure your meter works properly.
“If you're a tenant and your landlord pays the energy bills, tell them you think the meter might be faulty.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1702718/smart-meter-energy-crisis-ovo-energy-bills-power-cutsSmart meter ‘nightmare’ as issues force customers to endure higher bills and power cuts
OVO Energy has "sincerely apologised" after issues with customer smart meters left them in disarray, but the devices that are intended to help limit energy bills have caused a whole heap of problems amid the energy crisis
By JACOB PAUL 21:57, Mon, Nov 28, 2022 | UPDATED: 14:21, Tue, Nov 29, 2022
An energy company has been forced to apologise and offer compensation to smart meter customers who have reportedly been suffering “nightmare” scenarios due to issues with their devices that have left some on different payment plans, and others without power for weeks. OVO Energy has said it “sincerely apologises” for the issues which have left its customers in disarray amid the cost of living crisis.Audrey Risdon explained said that she feels as though she is living in a nightmare ever since being switched from a smart meter to a prepayment system while she was in hospital. The 81-year-old Hampshire resident has since come out of hospital and been returned to "credit mode" – a cheaper plan – and has been offered £327 in compensation.
In a letter sent to The Guardian over the summer, one consumer complained that her meter, run through Shell Energy, had stopped working. She reported that her smart meter became "strangely uncommunicative" shortly before the April 1 tariff increase on gas. When the publication asked other consumers to send in their complaints about their own smart meters, hundreds of letters began flooding in.
...
John Curtis, the manager of a residential estate, said: “Smart meters are an absolute scandal – millions were spent, yet the majority here are now useless.
...
"Another example of taxpayers’ money wasted on a government fantasy, with unproven technology rolled out nationwide with an almost entirely negative result. The money would have been better spent continuing to employ meter readers instead of devolving this increasingly irksome task to customers."
Another issue with smart meters is that energy companies are able to switch smart meter customers on to prepayment meter plans remotely
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/man-raging-over-40000-electricity-23763766Man raging over £40,000 electricity bill for a single day
By Luke Green James RodgerContent Editor 07:52, 23 APR 2022
Paul Davies, aged 46, from Scunthorpe, has spoken out.
A man has been charged an eye-watering £40,000 for electric - in a single day - after a smart meter gaffe. Paul Davies, aged 46, from Scunthorpe, has spoken out. He confronted supplier EDF over the charge - and was told smart meters are "never wrong". The supplier told him they would be upping his direct debit to £400 a month because of the readings
After arguing the toss with them, EDF eventually conceded it was a software error. He said to GrimsbyLive : "EDF were looking at putting my direct debit up to £400 a month because of these faulty readings. I can see what I'm using myself by looking at the app so I knew something was wrong.
Meters sold in the UK found to be over calculating usage under different loads 2017 study:https://www.smart-energy.com/regional-news/europe-uk/inaccurate-smart-meters-readings/Inaccurate smart meter readings causes rise in customer bills – study
By Ashley Theron-Ord -Mar 14, 2017
The Telegraph reported that scientisits from the University of Twente Enschede in the Netherlands behind the study, “* declined to name and shame affected smart meters but confirmed that those which give wrong readings in its tests have been sold and installed in the UK.”
The inaccuracies that have been identified have been blamed on the meter’s design and the increasing use of modern energy efficient devices. Energy saving light bulbs, heaters, LED bulbs and dimmers that change the shape of electric currents have been identified as the cause a distorted reading.
According to the study, “the greatest inaccuracies were seen when dimmers combined with energy saving light bulbs and LED bulbs were connected to the system.” Researchers had tested the meters by connecting them to different devices which are found in a typical home, says The Telegraph. The scientists compared the amount of energy they put into the system after a week with the amount of current the meter registered. They then calculated the differences between the two numbers.
Five out of nine smart meter models tested gave readings which were too high.
Billing accuracy
A report by First Utility (UK energy supplier) indicated that UK households face a 42% rise in the amount they pay to support government green energy initiatives, including smart meters.
SSE customers have also reportedly been wrongly told that they had used thousands of pounds worth of energy. One customer’s display showed more than £30,000 for a single day, added The Telegraph. The author of the report, Prof Leferink, said: “We’ve known since 2009 electronic meters can give readings which are too low. But this is the first time we’ve seen they can be much too high. We were flabbergasted by our results. “The study was carried out in a laboratory setting. If you looked at ones in homes I don’t expect they would be 500 or 600% out. But what we have shown is the reading can clearly deviate a lot from the power customers are actually consuming.”
Doug Stewart, chief executive at Green Energy UK, said: “Around 15% of households in the UK already have smart meters which could be affected by this issue. It is alarming, but it does not necessarily mean people have lost money. Smart meters are essentially a ‘second check’ as energy suppliers keep a record of energy consumption and if there is a discrepancy, they will know.”
*Isn't that dishonest? not mentioning which meter manufacture and model can cause customers to be grossly overcharged? leaving them possibly gaslighted? with so many possibilities.
Wrong price set remotely by the energy provider.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scots-couple-charged-13000-ovo-28417575Scots couple charged £13,000 by OVO Energy for energy bill in one night
By Jennifer Hyland Reporter 04:30, 6 NOV 2022 UPDATED04:31, 6 NOV 2022
Stewart contacted the firm and was shocked when the call handler asked if he would like to settle the balance over the phone
“It turns out if had been one of their agents that had entered an electricity reading as a gas one."
Software failure that can influence the price.
IHD monitor/app sync failure.
Firmware update failure.
Pricing mistakes during remote changing of rates.
Overcalculating loads.
Sounds to me like more trouble than what it is worth.
I calculate that the fixed rate offered with this "smart meter" will only bring in about £80 to £100 a year which isn't worth it. I think I prefer the manual readings at a flat rate. I think it could be a pick and mix what "smart" meter gets put in and whether it would over measure based on certain loads so I don't to take any risks that is going cause problems in the long term.
What do you think?
Home
Help
Search
Login
Register
